When working an airplane component, for example when drilling holes in an airplane component with a drilling unit, a holding device is used in order to apply a holding pressure to the airplane component, such as two skin sections that may not shift relative to each other while drilling continues. The holding pressure counteracts the force applied by the drilling unit to the airplane component. Such a holding pressure may, for example, also be required for preventing the entry of drilling chips into intermediate spaces between airplane components to be interconnected. Conventionally, a support plate with a plurality of holding pins is, for instance, provided for a determined zone on the surface of an airplane component. Depending on the contour of the airplane component in this zone the holding pins project out of the support plate by an individually set spacing in which the pins remain in order to achieve a contour true adaptation and thus a uniform holding pressure of the holding pins in the determined zone on the airplane component. Thus, for each determined zone of the surface of an airplane component a holding device is required that is individually adapted to the respective contour. Once the contour defined by the pin ends is set, the holding device can be used only on an airplane component zone having the same surface contour. The set pins can not be used on any other surface contour. Therefore, the stocking and handling of a multitude of individual holding devices is unavoidable, complicated, and expensive. Thus, keeping many holding devices in stock is not economical, particularly if airplane component contours deviate significantly from a standard contour. Further, some pins may contact the component surface while some may not. Thus, there is the danger that drilling chips enter into the intermediate spaces between two airplane components to be interconnected.